A biographical history of central Kansas, Vol. II, Part 42

Author: Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York Chicago: The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1084

USA > Kansas > A biographical history of central Kansas, Vol. II > Part 42

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ing of loneliness with which he was ap- presse.

The history of Mr. Chears' residence in Kansas began in 1870, when he located at Emporia. In the following March he took up a homestead in Walten township. Harvey county. That year the grasshoppers de- strived everything on his place that it was possible for them to destroy and he went to Milford Center. Union county, Ohio, where for four years he worked at his trade as a grainer and general painter, accumulating a little money and gradually making up his mind to try again his fortune in Kansas. During that time he sold for sixteen hun- dred dollars his Kansas homestead, which was later sold for eight thousand dollars. In 1879 he came from Indianapolis, Indiana, where he had lived for a time, to Anderson county, Kansas, where he bought eighty acres of railroad land, which he soon sold in order to locate at Garnet, Kansas. In 1884 he located on his present farm of eighty acres in section 22. Lake township, Harvey county, Kansas, forty acres of which was broken and on which there was a small house. He paid for the place twelve hun- dred dollars. As a farmer he has been markedly successful and in his declining years he is taking life easily and comfort- ably with neither riches nor poverty to dis- turb or annoy him.

Mr. Chears has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows since 1875, and his father was a member of the famous Baltimore Lodge, No. 1. the first lodge of that order instituted in the United States. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and in politics is a Repub- lican. His influence in local affairs is recog- nized. but he has steadily refused all polit- ical offices except in connection with the township school board. of which he has been a member many years.

WILLIAM CHARLTON.

The prominent citizen of Harvey om- ty. Kansas, whose successful caret: 15 W comes up for consideration and wh is one

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of the leading farmers in Halstead town- ship, was born in Chester county. Pennsyl- vania. September 9. 1849. Thomas Charl- ton. his father, was born in England in 1802, and until the was thirty-five years old was a hand-loom weaver. He came to America at the age of seventeen years on board a sailing brig, which was six weeks in reaching New York city. At the age of thirty-five he settled on a farm of sixty acres in West Whiteland township. Chester coun- ty, Pennsylvania, where he lived out the re- mainder of his days. About 1824 he mar- ried Jane Walker, who was born in his na- tive shire in England about two years later than himself, a daughter of John Walker, who with his family came to the United States on the same vessel with Mrs. Charl- ton. Mr. and Mrs. Charlton had fifteen chil- (Iren and reared two sons and eight daugh- ters to manhood and womanhood. Of these the subject of this sketch and his sisters Kate and Isabel are the only ones living. Kate is the wife of John Opperman, of Lawrence, Kansas, and has a son. Isabel is not mar- ried. Richard. a brother of William Charl- ton. became a bricklayer and a furnace- builder at Baltimore, Maryland, where he died in 1897, aged sixty-seven years, sur- vived by five of his six children, whom he left in comfortable circumstances. Thomas Charlton died about 1868. his wife about 1863, and they are buried at Lyonville. Chester county, Pennsylvania.

William Charlton received a limited common-school education, and after his fa- ther's death until he attained his majority. worked by the month on farms in Chester county. Pennsylvania. He came to Illinois in the fall of 1870, and in the spring of 1871 to Kansas, where he located on the southeast quarter of section 12. Halstead township. where his first abode was a sod house, which covered a ground space of twelve by twenty feet and was roofed with poles and dirt. His neighbor McBurney settled near him in 1873. The first house on this section was that of Mr. Hewings, and the second was the sod house mentioned, which belonged to Mr. Charlton's sister, in which he lived for five years, until his marriage.

In the summer of 1872 Mr. Charlton and Alexander McBurney each had a yoke of oxen and they joined their teams and broke considerable prairie land, Mr. Charl- ton's first crop being sod corn. In 1876 Mr. Charlton visited the Centennial exposition at Philadelphia and was married November 21. to Miss Mary E. Johnson, daughter of Thomas Johnson, of Chester county, Penn- sylvania, whom he had known since they had been boy and girl together. The Johnsons are an old and honored family of Chester county, and Mrs. Johnson's mother was Elizabeth Good; a member of another highly respectable Pennsylvania family. Mr. John- son was buried Christmas day, 1897, and his good wife died in 1895: each had attained the age of sixty-nine years. Their son George Johnson is married and is a promi- nent farmer in Chester county, Pennsylva- nia. Their daughter Annie E. is the wife of William Moore, of Downingtown, Pennsyl- vania : Mrs. Charlton, who had fair educa- tional advantages and was a diligent student. is a well informed woman of many graces and accomplishments.

After his marriage and return to Kan- sas, Mr. Charlton built a frame house on his farm in which he and his wife began house- keeping January 1. 1877, and in which they lived until September, 1898, when he took her, an invalid. to Eureka Springs, Arkan- sas. When she returned six months later. considerably improved in health, they moved into their present comfortable home. Mr. and Mrs. Charlton are childless, but they adopted Arah H. Steele, when he was eight years old and reared him as their own son, and he now has a wife and daughter and is doing well on the homestead, both for him- self and his foster-father. Miss Ruby Hol- comb, who is now an interesting girl of thir- teen years, came to them as their adopted daughter when she was four years old.

Mr. Charlton is honored by his neigh- bors not only as an upright, successful man, but as a pioneer who helped to pave the way for the achievements of others. He is a Master Mason and a past master of Hal- stead Lodge, No. 46. Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons. With strong opinion on all

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important political questions, concerning which he is exceptionally well informed, he is an independent voter, and it goes without saying that he is not an office-seeker, and he has never accepted any public office ex- cept as school director and highway commissioner, in which capacities he was able to serve his fellow townsmen most effi- ciently. As a farmer he takes high rank and he and Mrs. Charlton are the owners of nearly four hundred acres of productive land included in two farms. Mrs. Charlton is a member of the Presbyterian church.

CHARLES P. DENNO.

Wherever they have located in the great west. Indianians have been a factor in prog- ress and prosperity, and Canadians have proven themselves to be of the material of which gond citizens are made. The subject of this sketch is of Indiana birth and of Canadian ancestry. Peter Denno, his father. was born in Canada in 1822, and when a young man went to Indiana, where he mar- ried Lucy A. Jaqueth, daughter of Asa Ja- quethi, a native of Vermont. He became a boatman on the St. Joseph's river and was thus employed for some years when not en- gaged in land-clearing and farming. His recollections of the time when the under- brush was cut away and the large trees were girdled on the Indiana homestead prepara- tory to planting corn, which when husked was taken to mill on horseback over long routes marked by blazed trees. were very interesting.

Charles P. Denno was the first born of his parents' twelve children, six sons and one daughter of whom grew to manhood and womanhood. David W. Denno lives in Michigan. Alonzo lives near Lincoln, Ne- braska. The mother of these children, now aged nearly seventy-eight years, has been a widow since 1879 and lives at Mishawaka. St. Joseph county, Indiana, with her daugh- ter. practically keeping house and doing her own housework. One of her sons did sol-

dier's duty under the stars and stripes in the Civil war. Charles P. Denno was reared to farm life and given a good common-schel education, and after his father moved to town remained on the home farm until 1878, when he came to Kansas and located in Ma- con township, Harvey county.

In the spring of 1878 Mr. Denno mar- ried Mrs. Rebecca Crofoot, widow of George Crofoot and daughter of John and Deborah ( Austin ) Williams. Her father, a native of England, came to the United States when a boy with his father. Moses Williams, Mrs. Denno's great-grandfather, was an early dairyman in Boston, Massachusetts, and his farm was absorbed in the growing city, and though he left considerable wealth Mrs. Denno and her two sisters did not inherit any of it. Her sisters are Mrs. Augusta Stiles, a widow, who lives in Pueblo, Col- orado, and Ann Jane Balch, wife of Jerome Balch, of Mishawaka, St. Joseph county, Indiana. The mother of these daughters died when Mrs. Denno was a babe and the latter was brought up by her grandna ther Austin. She was married in November, 1859, at the age of fifteen years and six months. to George Crofoot, to whom she bore four daughters. Lenora is the wife of Joel Nolder, of Macon township, and has a son and daughter. Florence married Elias Bonham, of Newton, Kansas. Mary Jane married George Walton and lives in Okla- homa : she has three daughters and one son. Maud, who married Leonard Gibbons, diul in the fall of 1895, aged twenty-four years. leaving a son and a daughter, who are mc.n- bers of their grandmother's housch il. Clarence Gibbons is a bright ly of nine years, and Sylvia is an attractive Miss of twelve years. Mr. and Mrs. Denno Lurie.1 Royal, their only child. in February. 1886, he having died when he was seven years, seven months and two days old. He was a talented and very precocious boy, who be- trayed a positive genius along artistic lines.

Mr. and Mrs. Denno located on their one-hundred-and-sixty-acre farm in Macon township in the fall of 1878, Mrs. Denn and her four daughters arriving at Newan

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a few days before Mr. Denno came with their household effects. He had bought the place in the preceding March for eleven hun- dred and fifty dollars. About twenty acres of it had been broken and an eighteen-by- twenty-foot house had been built upon it. There was no shade upon the place except what was afforded by one small cottonwood tree. They planted many shade-trees and have a fine orchard, and have linked the old with the new in a most interesting way by including their original house in their pres- ent comfortable residence. Mr. Denno gives his attention to general farming, man- aging his home quarter section himself and entrusting his other quarter section three- fourths of a mile away to a tenant. His leading crop is wheat, of which he has cleaned up twenty-two hundred bushels in a single year, and he raises considerable corn. He has a small herd of cattle and keeps five horses.

Politically Mr. Denno is a Republican. He and his wife are members of the Meth- odist Episcopal church and other members of their .household are attendant upon its services. Mrs. Denno possesses considerable poetic talent. and though she is largely self- educated she has developed much literary taste. She is the author of between two and three hundred impromptu. occasional and memorial poems, nearly all of which have been written since she took up her residence in Kansas. The following verses from her pen were suggested by the death of her be- loved daughter, Maud:

"Dearest Maud, Oh, how we miss you! Here will be a vacant chair :

But in heaven we hope to meet you, For there will be no parting there.

"We've laid the cherished of our household Calmly in her bed so low. Glad that she this chilling sorrow For her friends will never know.

"Maud's voice no more will thrill Hearts her love had lighted up :

Oh, this dreadful crushing sorrow Must we drink the bitter cup?

"Here our family ties are broken : One by one they're passing o'er ; We almost seem to see our loved ones Beckoning from the other shore.

"Oh, the bliss and joy of heaven. Oh, the rapture of the soul. When we shall meet our loved ones And our Saviour there behold!" MOTHER.

ALEXANDER L. BARTLEBAUGH.

The farming interest of Newton town- ship. Harvey county, are well represented by Alexander L. Bartlebaugh, who resides on section 2. where he is extensively en- gaged in the raising of stock. He was born in Indiana county, Pennsylvania, June 27, 1841, and his father, Mathias Bartlebaugh, was a native of the same county. There he spent his entire life, his death occurring about 1871. His wife bore the maiden name of Ann Fowler and was also born. reared and lived in Indiana county. This worthy couple became the parents of nine children, five daughters and four sons, all of whom reached mature years and were mar- ried with the exception of two. One son, Archie, served as a soldier in the Civil war, responding to the first call for troops to aid in crushing out the rebellion in its incipiency He joined the Eleventh Pennsylvania Re- serves and was killed in the battle of the Peninsula under General McClellan. There he fills an unknown grave, his remains har- ing never been recovered. He was in the twenty-third year of his age when he laid down his life a willing sacrifice on the altar of his country. Another brother of the fam- ily, John D., died from an injury when a youth. The other members of the family have all departed this life with the exception of our subject and his sister. Mrs. Cameron. of Clearfield county. Pennsylvania. The mother died in 1874 and was laid to rest by the side of her husband. The grandmother, Mrs. Elizabeth Bartlehaugh, died at the home of our subject's parents about 1850 when seventy-five years of age. She had

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two sons and one daughter. Mathias Bar- telangh was a most patriotic Republican. and although exempt from military service by age. he entered the Civil war and were the country's uniform for a year, when fail- ing health recessitated his discharge.

Mevander I. Bartlelaugh, of this review. received but limited colocational privileges. He attended a leg scheel-house in which were . Big five little windows, and it steed in the midst ci tall pine trees, and the anthem of the wind as beard in their 1 ughs has never been forgotten by him. He remained 11. the leme farm until sixteen years of age when he began earning his own living by working in a lumber camp on the headwaters of the Susquehannah river. He was thus emperyal during the winter months and in the sturmer season he engaged in agricul- tural lal . rs. At the time of the Civil war he made three attempts to enlist and finally. in July. 1864. he was accepted and assigned to Company I. Two Hundred and Sixth Pennsylvania Infantry. Ile was never in any battle, however, and was mustered out at Richmond. A slight lameness in his right leg was the cause of his non-acceptance when twice before he attempted to enter the ser- vice

Mr. Bartlebaugh was married February II. 1873. to Miss Eliza A. Goff, who was la rn in Indiana, in 1846, and was of Eng- lisk parentage. In May. 1872, Mr. Bartle- laugh had come to Kansas an 1 secured ine hundred kel sixty acres of his present home- steal . farm in Newton township. Harvey county. He then returned to Missouri, which had been his place of residence from the time he left Pennsylvania in 1869. In ISto he went to Blackhawk. Colorad. . where for a time he was employed in a quartz mill and upon his return he was mar- ried and Legan life anew with a wife, who to him has been a most faithful companion in life's journey. He had a little shanty Sixteen by twenty feet and in that they lived for one summer. It had been built by a man frem Pennsylvania to when Mr. Bartle- baugh paid two hundred and fifty dollars in order to get possession of this primitive

dwelling. His present residence is a -toll and a half house which he erected in 1874. In the fall of 1801 he built a large and sub- stantial bank barn, forty by sixty feet. mil- izing nearly five carloads of rock in the basement and walls. This is one of the best barns in central Kansas, its cost being over eleven hundred dollars. Mr. Bartlebaugh raises full-blooded short-horn cattle, his herd averaging from sixty to one hundred head. For the last twenty years he has cul- tivated a half section of land in addition to his home farm, growing wheat on seventy acres, corn on forty acres, and cats and hay on broad fields. He, however, feeds all the long products which he raises and likewise buys some. His orchard comprises between four and five acres of land and he also has a good grove upon his place, including a vari- ety of trees. He has raised black walnut and hickory trees from the seed and all of this growth stands as a monument to his enterprise and skill. There is running water near his house and his attractive ground- render his place a favorite resort for picnic purposes.

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Bartiehaugh has been blessed with five children. last the eldest, a son, died in infancy, and Mahel died at the age of six months. The others are Marlin, who was born in 1876: Edna. who is engaged in dressmaking in Newton, and Lester, a youth of sixteen.

Mr. Bartlebaugh is a stalwart Real- lican who does all in his power to printte the growth and insure the success of his party. He has served as 1 wn-hip treasurer for the past fifteen years and has also been school treasurer, discharging the duties of both positions with promptness and fidelity. He belongs to the Grand Army of the Re- public, and he and his wife are members . i the Methodlist Episcopal church in Newton. The government now grants him a penis in recognition of his services in the Civil wer. and it is well deserved, for few mit S. physically disabled would have given their services to the country. He has always been a most loyal and patriotic citizen. det tol to the welfare of every community with

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which he has been connected and throughout his life he has commanded the esteem and confidnce of his fellow men by reason of his strong purpose and honorable career.

M. F. DRURY.

Nothing so plainly indicates a man's character as the condition of property which he owns, and the fine farm which Mr. Drurt possesses and cultivates is an evidence of his enterprise, careful management and good business ability. This is located in White township, Kingman county, and is a valu- able property, supplied with all modern ac- cessories. From an early age in the develop- ment of the middle west the Drurys have been prominent in the work of opening up this region to civilization.

Our subject was born October 6, 1851. in Rock Island county, Illinois, where his parents and grandparents have lived; the latter, Isaiah and Priscilla (Reynolds ) Drury, were pioneers of the county ; and the former went to Illinois from Wayne county, Indiana, his home being on Whitewater river, near Richmond. Representatives of the name participated in the Indian wars in that portion of the United States. Mrs. Drury was a native of the Prairie state, and both the grandparents of our subject died in Rock Island county. Eli Drury, the father of our subject, was reared and educated there and became a miller, conducting a sawmill for a number of years. He was very prominent in all public affairs and in connection with county offices to which he was called by the vote of the people. He served as post- master of Drury, which office was named in honor of the family. He married Margaret Hubbard, who was born in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, and afterward resided in Ohio and Illinois. They became the parents of five children, namely : Hardin, now; de- ceased : M. F., of this review : Minnie, who has passed away: Mrs. Emma Ricketts, of Illinois ; and Melissa, who is living in Oak- land, Iowa. The mother died at the age of seventy years, in the faith of the Methodist

Episcopal church, of which she was an earnest and loyal member. The father passed away at the age of seventy-four. He was long recognized as a leading and in- fluential citizen of his community, and for forty years he took an active part in every- thing pertaining to its substantial improve- ment. His opinions carried weight in the local councils of the Democratic party, and he served as county assessor, county col- lector and in other offices, his incumbency being due to the confidence and regard re- posed in him by his fellow men. He was true to every trust, and he retired from of- fice. as he entered it,-with the confidence and good will of all concerned.

M. F. Drury was reared upon his fa- ther's farm, and in his youth also worked in the mill. In 1884 he wedded Lillie John- son, a native of Lawrence county, Ohio, and a daughter of Major John Johnson, who won his title as a member of the state militia. He was born in the Buckeye state, and was a son of William Johnson, who also was a native of Ohio and was a loyal soldier in the war of 1812. John Johnson was united in marriage to Caroline Ricketts, who was born in Virginia, as was her father. John B. Ricketts. a representative of one of the old and honored families of that state. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson became the par- ents of six children : James : Mary, who passed away; Lillie: Ella J. ; John B .; and Charles W. who also is deceased. The father was called to his final rest at the age of seventy-seven years. His political sup- port was given the Republican party and in religious faith he was a Methodist. For sixteen years the family resided in Greenup county, Kentucky, owning a fine farm in the blue-grass region. Mrs. Johnson now sur- vives her husband, and at the age of seven- ty-four years is living in Scioto county, Ohio. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Drury has been blessed with three children; but Johnson was killed at the age of nine years, and they also lost one other bright boy, Eli Clyde. Their living child is Clara Armeca.

Mr. and Mrs. Drury began their do- mestic life in Rock Island, Illinois, and there remained until 1887,-the year of their ar-

MR. AND MRS. M. F. DRURY AND FAMILY.

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rival in Kingman county. Here our subject purchased land in White township, and to- day he is the owner of three hundred and twenty acres, constituting a very valuable tract. He erected a model frame residence at a cost of one thousand dollars ; and upon the place are also good barns and out-build- ings, and an orchard, which contains twenty acres. There is also a good grove, rich pasture-lands, well cultivated fields, and cattle of good grade. All this is indicative of the industrious and enterprising spirit of the owner, who is justly accounted one of the leading farmers of this community. He voted with the Democracy, but is now a third-party man. He has been a justice of the peace, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. His sterling qualities, his reliability and enter- prise, are all qualities which command for him the respect and friendship of his fellow citizens.

W. H. McCAGUE.

The subject of this review is actively connected with a profession which has im- portant bearing upon the progress and sta- ble prosperity of any section or community, and one which has long been considered as conserving the public welfare by furthering the ends of justice and maintaining indi- vidual right. He now has a distinctively representative clientage and is and has been connected with much of the important liti- gation held in the courts of this district. He makes his home in Medicine Lodge. where he has resided continuously since 1884, with the exception of the five years passed in Oklahoma.

Mr. McCague is a native of Ripley coun- ty. Ohio, born in 1852. On the paternal side he is of Scotch and Irish lineage and his grandfather. Thomas McCague, was one of the early settlers of the Buckeye state, where he became a leading and influential citizen. taking an active part in the pioneer develop- ment of that region. He strongly endorsed abolition principles and did all in his p wer to crush out slavery. In his religious views

he was a United Presbyterian. He married Catherine Platter and among their children was William H. McCague, the father of our subject, who was born in Ohio. When he passed the period of his early youth he learned the miller's trade and also became a foundryman. He possessed excellent busi- ness and executive ability and was industri- ous and persevering. When the country be- came involved in Civil war he responded to the call for troops and in 1861 became a member of the Twelfth Ohio Infantry, with which he served for more than three years. After his return home he continued his resi- dence in Ohio until 1866, when he removed to Mexico, Missouri, and in 1872 he took up his abode in Boone county, that state. Later he returned to Ripley county, Ohio. where he spent his remaining days, passing away at the age of sixty-six. He was a de- voted member of the United Presbyterian church, in which his father had served as presiding elder for many years. The mother of our subject bore the maiden name of Ag- nes Dickens, and was born in Brown county, Ohio, a daughter of Thomas Dickens, of that state. She died in Ripley county, Ohio. in 1857, leaving six children, of whom five are yet living, the eldest being Mrs. Mary S. McElroy, of Greeley, Colorado. Thomas D., who resides in Anderson county, Kan- sas, served there as county commissioner for several years and at the time of the Civil war he was a member of the Seventh Ohio Volunteer Cavalry. Mrs. Kate P. Gamble is living in Mexico, Missouri. Mrs. Agnes G. Kirkpatrick is a resident of Cincinnati, Ohio. Sally, the youngest of the family, died in Anderson county, Kansas.

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A biographical history of central Kansas, Vol. II, Part 42

Author: Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago Publication date: 1902 Publisher: New York Chicago: The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 1084

Author: Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York Chicago: The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1084